Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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  • Sections of an oil and natural gas pipeline is stockpiled near Sobolevo.<br />
<br />
The pipeline cuts through the marine environment, and across the shelf and through many of the salmon rivers in the country. Once completed, this will destroy river environments and open up access roads for more poaching. The new government in Kamchatka is willing to risk the salmon fisheries, which generate 30 percent of all the fish caught in Russia and 40 percent of the income, for a fraction of the natural gas and oil that exists in plentiful amounts elsewhere in Russia. Kamchatka used to be divided into two provinces with two local governments. These were combined recently with the stated objective of resource development. By resources they mean oil and gas drilling on the Kamchatka shelf with a pipeline to the port in PK. The Kamchatka league of independent experts deemed that 70 percent of all rivers crossed by the pipeline are permanently degraded for long-term fish production.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1248228.TIF
  • A statue of Lenin in the main square of the remote town of Oktyabrski.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260952.JPG
  • Street scene of a military tank under Soviet era communications towers, a child on a bike and resident walking on the unpaved streets of Khailino in Kamchatka.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260983-7.TIF
  • A Koryak man dries fish in his summer camp that will feed his family through the winter. Koryaks are an indigenous people of Kamchatka Krai in the Russian Far East, who inhabit the coastlands of the Bering Sea to the south of the Anadyr basin and the country to the immediate north of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The koryak are typically split into two groups. The coastal people Nemelan (or Nymylan) meaning ‘village dwellers’ due to their sedentary fishing habits and the inland Koryaks, reindeer herders called Chauchen (or Chauchven) meaning ‘rich in reindeer’ who are more nomadic.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260943.TIF
  • The remote town of Oktyabrsky.<br />
is small town built on the fish industry on the west coast of Kamchatka or the mouth of the Bolshaya River in the Ust Bolsheretsk district. The Russian community was founded solely because of fishing, and the population of a little over 2,000 doubles in the summer.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260925.TIF
  • The commercial Fishing Brigade outside of Sobolevo, Russia, fish the Vorovskaya River, ironically, the same river from which they offload supplies for the pipeline that will eventually destroy their salmon runs.  But at the end of the first big push, their nets are so full of salmon that they can’t immediately load them onto the trucks.  So while fish are in the holding pen, the truck driver has time to play with his dog. <br />
<br />
Commercial fishing is allowed 40 to 60 percent of the fish run every year in Kamchatka.  Poaching can take nearly as much, so on a good year only 20 percent of they fish escape to breed again.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1248222.TIF
  • Fish inspectors in surplus tanks get stuck in pursuit of poachers.<br />
<br />
 An anti-poaching enforcement trip starts in Sobolevo, the salmon poaching epicenter. Men ride on tanks and in boats attempting to spot poachers who put out nets to fish–they can see where sediment on the rocks was washed away and a net was dragged. Their suspicions are confirmed when they find spilled caviar. They follow many paths into the woods finding the poacher camp. <br />
<br />
The patrols are just outside Soboleva in the heart of the most poached area of Kamchatka. Soboleva is on the Sea of Okhotsk, just off the Kamchatka shelf and is only accessible by MI-8 helicopter.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1248214.TIF
  • Koryak residents of Khailino, Kamchatka, Russia, rush to get their mother to the poacher's helicopter so she can get medical treatment in Petropavlovsk. The poaching situation in these areas allows some individuals to pay for helicopter time and on return trips the helicopter is often empty. If you know poachers it's possible, in this case, to get medical care.
    MM7593_20080730_02970.tif
  • Fish inspectors take a break during their pursuit of salmon poachers.<br />
<br />
A warden shares tea with the poachers in their kitchen tent. There are a lot of unwritten rules. Fish wardens know that it costs $10,000 to get into a poaching camp in Kamchatka, and $10,000 to get back out by helicopter with your catch. The wardens understand that if they destroy fishing gear and caviar production facilities, they have harmed their neighbors enough. And they also can’t afford $10,000 to get criminals back by helicopter for prosecution.<br />
<br />
The poachers know this, and know not to bring any kind of identity papers with them because it is possible for them to be prosecuted with their passports.  The kitchen survives the burn so men can feed themselves. The poachers go free, but have to sit and wait for their helicopter, empty handed which is why the wardens don’t burn their kitchen or sleeping areas.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260973.JPG
  • A worker steps over sections of a pipeline being stockpiled near Sobolevo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260931.JPG
  • A worker climbs a ladder beside sections of a pipeline being stockpiled near Sobolevo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260928.JPG
  • Residents of a remote village  in Kamchatka rush to meet the supply helicopter. Original inhabitants Khailino are indigenous. Dogs run wild in the street and locals on board a motorcycle race to try to get a woman on board to be taken where she can get medical attention. <br />
<br />
In Northern Kamchatka, indigenous Koryak people and Russians came for “Northern money” when the Soviet Union wanted to tame the area. Income paid was eight times more than a similar job in Moscow, so some people figured out how to get all the necessary permits to work. When default happened, no one in the remote outposts received salaries.  People made a living from salmon caviar and created fishing brigades with distribution systems. Living in a very small community of 700 residents, and the temperatures drop to –40° in the winter, everyone works hard to merely survive and are kind to each other.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1248213.TIF
  • Moscow children, born with terminal-limb deficiency, in these cases the left forearm is missing, are all from two neighborhoods, were the incidence of congenitally deformed children seems to be higher than elsewhere.
    GERD LUDWIG_06041_490537.jpg
  • Fish inspectors wade in shallow water are in pursuit of salmon poachers.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260976.JPG
  • Rear view mirror inside a car driving down a street in the remote town of Oktyabrsky.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260954.TIF
  • Residents of Khailino, a remote village, ride a motorcycle with sidecar down the unpaved street under Soviet era communication towers.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260921.TIF
  • From the air, the town of Norilsk looks like a city on fire.  Numerous smokesta cks belch plumes of brown and gray smoke into the atmosphere that can be seen f rom 50 miles away.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Rus sia--more than two million tons of pollutants a year, primarily sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129-9.jpg
  • From the air, the town of Norilsk looks like a city on fire.  Numerous smokesta cks belch plumes of brown and gray smoke into the atmosphere that can be seen f rom 50 miles away.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Rus sia--more than two million tons of pollutants a year, primarily sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129-18.jpg
  • The brittle remains of dead larch forest extend mile after mile southeastward f rom the Siberian mining town of Norilsk.  This area, known as the dead tree zon e, is a 75-mile stretch of critical environmental damage directly attributed to the to the noxious material dispersed from Norilsk's nickel and copper smeltering factorie s.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Russia--more than t wo million tons of pollutants a year, mainly sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129.jpg
  • From the air, the town of Norilsk looks like a city on fire.  Numerous smokesta cks belch plumes of brown and gray smoke into the atmosphere that can be seen f rom 50 miles away.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Rus sia--more than two million tons of pollutants a year, primarily sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129-15.jpg
  • From the air, the town of Norilsk looks like a city on fire.  Numerous smokesta cks belch plumes of brown and gray smoke into the atmosphere that can be seen f rom 50 miles away.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Rus sia--more than two million tons of pollutants a year, primarily sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129-14.jpg
  • The brittle remains of dead larch forest extend mile after mile southeastward f rom the Siberian mining town of Norilsk.  This area, known as the dead tree zon e, is a 75-mile stretch of critical environmental damage directly attributed to the to the noxious material dispersed from Norilsk's nickel and copper smeltering factorie s.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Russia--more than t wo million tons of pollutants a year, mainly sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129-12.jpg
  • From the air, the town of Norilsk looks like a city on fire.  Numerous smokesta cks belch plumes of brown and gray smoke into the atmosphere that can be seen f rom 50 miles away.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Rus sia--more than two million tons of pollutants a year, primarily sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129-11.jpg
  • The brittle remains of dead larch forest extend mile after mile southeastward f rom the Siberian mining town of Norilsk.  This area, known as the dead tree zon e, is a 75-mile stretch of critical environmental damage directly attributed to the to the noxious material dispersed from Norilsk's nickel and copper smeltering factorie s.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Russia--more than t wo million tons of pollutants a year, mainly sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129-10.jpg
  • From the air, the town of Norilsk looks like a city on fire.  Numerous smokesta cks belch plumes of brown and gray smoke into the atmosphere that can be seen f rom 50 miles away.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Rus sia--more than two million tons of pollutants a year, primarily sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129-8.jpg
  • From the air, the town of Norilsk looks like a city on fire.  Numerous smokesta cks belch plumes of brown and gray smoke into the atmosphere that can be seen f rom 50 miles away.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Rus sia--more than two million tons of pollutants a year, primarily sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129-7.jpg
  • From the air, the town of Norilsk looks like a city on fire.  Numerous smokesta cks belch plumes of brown and gray smoke into the atmosphere that can be seen f rom 50 miles away.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Rus sia--more than two million tons of pollutants a year, primarily sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129-6.jpg
  • From the air, the town of Norilsk looks like a city on fire.  Numerous smokesta cks belch plumes of brown and gray smoke into the atmosphere that can be seen f rom 50 miles away.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Rus sia--more than two million tons of pollutants a year, primarily sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129-2.jpg
  • From the air, the town of Norilsk looks like a city on fire.  Numerous smokesta cks belch plumes of brown and gray smoke into the atmosphere that can be seen f rom 50 miles away.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Rus sia--more than two million tons of pollutants a year, primarily sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129-17.jpg
  • From the air, the town of Norilsk looks like a city on fire.  Numerous smokesta cks belch plumes of brown and gray smoke into the atmosphere that can be seen f rom 50 miles away.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Rus sia--more than two million tons of pollutants a year, primarily sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129-13.jpg
  • From the air, the town of Norilsk looks like a city on fire.  Numerous smokesta cks belch plumes of brown and gray smoke into the atmosphere that can be seen f rom 50 miles away.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Rus sia--more than two million tons of pollutants a year, primarily sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129-16.jpg
  • From the air, the town of Norilsk looks like a city on fire.  Numerous smokesta cks belch plumes of brown and gray smoke into the atmosphere that can be seen f rom 50 miles away.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Rus sia--more than two million tons of pollutants a year, primarily sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129-3.jpg
  • From the air, the town of Norilsk looks like a city on fire.  Numerous smokesta cks belch plumes of brown and gray smoke into the atmosphere that can be seen f rom 50 miles away.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Rus sia--more than two million tons of pollutants a year, primarily sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129-19.jpg
  • From the air, the town of Norilsk looks like a city on fire.  Numerous smokesta cks belch plumes of brown and gray smoke into the atmosphere that can be seen f rom 50 miles away.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Rus sia--more than two million tons of pollutants a year, primarily sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129-1.jpg
  • The brittle remains of dead larch forest extend mile after mile southeastward f rom the Siberian mining town of Norilsk.  This area, known as the dead tree zon e, is a 75-mile stretch of critical environmental damage directly attributed to the to the noxious material dispersed from Norilsk's nickel and copper smeltering factorie s.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Russia--more than t wo million tons of pollutants a year, mainly sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673214.JPG
  • From the air, the town of Norilsk looks like a city on fire.  Numerous smokesta cks belch plumes of brown and gray smoke into the atmosphere that can be seen f rom 50 miles away.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Rus sia--more than two million tons of pollutants a year, primarily sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129-4.jpg
  • From the air, the town of Norilsk looks like a city on fire.  Numerous smokesta cks belch plumes of brown and gray smoke into the atmosphere that can be seen f rom 50 miles away.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Rus sia--more than two million tons of pollutants a year, primarily sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129-5.jpg
  • Teal and snipe felled by expedition member Vladimir Kruger flesh out a diet of fish, mushrooms, berries and ample rations of vodka for the team.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_663867-1.jpg
  • Teal and snipe felled by expedition member Vladimir Kruger flesh out a diet of fish, mushrooms, berries and ample rations of vodka for the team.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_663867-1-3.jpg
  • Teal and snipe felled by expedition member Vladimir Kruger flesh out a diet of fish, mushrooms, berries and ample rations of vodka for the team.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_663867-2.jpg
  • View from the Medieval towers of the Ushguli settlement in the highlands of Svaneti looking towards another Svan rural village.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6689_702588_2.tif
  • Prayer candles put on one of the Medieval towers of the Ushguli settlement in the highlands of Svaneti
    RANDY OLSON_MM6689_702588_3.tif
  • Medieval towers of the Ushguli settlement in the highlands of Svaneti.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708203_7.tif
  • Medieval towers of the Ushguli settlement in the highlands of Svaneti.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708203_2.tif
  • Medieval towers of the Ushguli settlement in the highlands of Svaneti. Locals gather around a campfire in Tusheti.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708203_6.TIF
  • Animal sacrifice under the medieval towers of the Ushguli settlement in the highlands of Svaneti.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708203_4.TIF
  • Medieval towers of the Ushguli settlement in the highlands of Svaneti.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708203_3.tif
  • Leopard-skin high-heeled shoes are worn by a bridesmaid  at the port in Petropavlovsk, second largest port in the world. Fish go out and inexpensive Chinese shoes come in. <br />
<br />
The Russian port has a deep, flat bottom and a well-protected entrance, and is the location of a major submarine base. The port at Petropavlovsk is where 30 percent of all the fish in Russia are shipped out – all production goes down the east side of the Pacific Rim – to Japan, China and South Korea. Even though the port is thriving, Petropavlovsk lost 30 percent of its population in the 90s after default and is still in slow decline.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1248216.TIF
  • Medieval towers of the Ushguli settlement in the highlands of Svaneti.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708203.TIF
  • From the air, the town of Norilsk looks like a city on fire.  Numerous smokesta cks belch plumes of brown and gray smoke into the atmosphere that can be seen f rom 50 miles away.  Norilsk pumps out 8 percent of all the air pollution in Rus sia--more than two million tons of pollutants a year, primarily sulfur dioxide.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673129.JPG
  • Teal and snipe felled by expedition member Vladimir Kruger flesh out a diet of fish, mushrooms, berries and ample rations of vodka for the team.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_663867.JPG
  • A Svan home with portraits of parents.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6689_702588_8.TIF
  • Medieval towers of the Ushguli settlement in the highlands of Svaneti.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708203_5.tif
  • The remote fishing town of Khailino.<br />
An aerial photograph of Khailino from a MI-8 helicopter between Tilichiki and Khailino, shows the Vyvenka River linking these two communities.  Flying north in Kamchatka, there are miles and miles of untouched tundra, streams, wetland, and rivers like this meandering, unconstrained river that is a perfect environment for salmon spawning.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260940.TIF
  • The volcanic landscape of Kamchatka with snowy peaks above the clouds in an aerial photograph.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260935.JPG
  • People ice-fishing on the Ural River in front of the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant.
    GERD LUDWIG_06041_490448.jpg
  • The religious community of Georgian Dukhobors relocated near Tambov.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7890_1386419.TIF
  • A village lays at the foot of a mountain range.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708738.TIF
  • Taxi ride in Norilsk Siberia on our way to the Putorana Plateau with the Russian Geographic Society. The smokestacks are from Norilsk Nickel that produces 8 percent of all the pollution in Russia. The trees south of this plant are barren and dead.
    ngs0_3466.tif
  • The religious community of Georgian Dukhobors relocated near Tambov.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7890_1386420.TIF
  • A pair of salmon carcasses float in the water.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260929.JPG
  • View through a cracked windshield of a man checking his vehicle.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708772.TIF
  • A mechanic works on the engine of an old car.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708216.TIF
  • Bracelet of gold adorned with ram's heads from the fifth century B.C.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708202.JPG
  • A necklace of gold turtles from the fifth century B.C.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708201.JPG
  • A wooden pathway leads to an almost ghostly line of fog above a lake.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673186.JPG
  • Rose-colored flowering bushes in a wooded area of Putorana Plateau.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673109.JPG
  • A newspaper portrait of Mikhail Gorbechev on a rough-hewn building.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_663865.JPG
  • A waterfall spills into the pristine waters of the lake below.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_673104.JPG
  • A bride's father supplies caviar from his fishing camp. He got enough caviar to feed 200 people at his daughter’s wedding. <br />
<br />
The bride is one quarter indigenous—there is, however, an easy mix between indigenous and white Russians. This family decided to have a wedding although the bride is seven months pregnant. Common-law marriages are the norm among the indigenous people, so the entire town prepared for almost a year for this event.  Most of the decorations were brought in by MI-8 helicopter.  <br />
<br />
Russia wanted to “tame” the salmon zones in Kamchatka, so some moved to the northern communities that were technically war zones with the United States.  To do so, they had to have connections and get permits, then move to where they make eight times what they can in Moscow in government wages. When default happened and their state-subsidized salaries disappeared, all they were left with was the resource—salmon.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1248204.TIF
  • .A dog watches over as Russian fishermen pull in the nets from a fishing brigade on the Bolshaya River. Strict work hours at the mouth of the river allow some of the salmon can pass through to Kanchatka’s indigenous camps further upstream. <br />
<br />
The fish have gone into a dormant state because they have been in the net so long. This was the first great push of salmon—the storm had just passed, the tide was out and the water had cleared enough that all salmon make a mad dash upriver.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260950.TIF
  • Young girls are dressed in their finest for a wedding celebration in a remote village. Their families are some of the industrious people who came to Kamchatka for “northern money” had to scramble when default happened, and they survived with no state money.  Highly valued Russian caviar was their only resource between 1995 and 2005.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260914.TIF
  • A fishing brigade on the Bolshaya River south of the town of Oktyabrski where men make a fish camp out of a beached, ocean-going vessel.  They are not fishing on this day because it allows time for the fish to spawn, and indigenous communities up river in Kamchatka can fish in the area along the Bolshaya River. <br />
<br />
Fishing brigades use tractors to tow one end of a net and then bring it around full circle in the river to capture the fish. A net is  dumped into small boats that have small nets laid in them. A crane picks up the small nets and dumps them into trucks that take the fish to the processing plants in Ust Bolsheretsk. If fishing was allowed every day in the mouths of these rivers just off the Kamchatka shelf, no salmon would get up river to spawn. There are two “passing days” each week when fishing is banned, so these fishermen hang out in their camp and do their laundry. Some fishermen come from as far as Ulan-Ude, which is on the border with Siberia. One of the fishermen in this photo is from PK, two are from Urilutsk, Siberia, and two are from Oktybrski.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1248226.TIF
  • This is the Ust Bolsheretsk area at the height of fishing season along the Bolshaya river.  These fishing brigades use tractors to tow one end of the net and then bring it around full circle in the river to cinch in the fish. The net is then dumped into small boats that have nets laid in them that the crane uses to pick them up and dump them into trucks that go to the processing plants in Ust Bolsheretsk.  This brigade is working in this area that is south of Oktyabrski.
    MM7593_20080805_04281.tif
  • Fish plant worker in a fish processing plant in Oktyabrski, Kamchatka, the town where Soviets built two of the largest fish plants in Russia.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260953.TIF
  • A bridge and groom stand before a heart-shaped candles of live that the community of Khailino made to celebrate their wedding. A rare event in Kamchatka, Russia. It was actually as beautiful and touching a scene as I’ve ever experienced though in the setting of a basketball court in a small town on the same latitude as Siberia.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260920.TIF
  • Anti-poaching wardens destroy poacher's caviar processing area.<br />
This is a rare raid of a poaching camp in Kamchatka. There are only four legal fish inspectors in this area for eight major river systems. These rivers emanate from the middle range and flow through the wetlands of western Kamchatka and finally out to the Sea of Okhotsk. Fish inspectors rarely make the 70 bust quota they are required to make per season.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1248215.JPG
  • Negotiating bicycles and buggies on a dirt road are part of life in Kjailino, a remote village in Kamchatka.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260983-5.TIF
  • A fishing brigade on the Bolshaya River.<br />
Russian boats are so loaded with fish that they barely clear the surface of the water. These fishermen are fighting against time while the tide is out. When the ocean tide is high and coming in to the Bolshaya, it pushes their nets closed.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260922.JPG
  • The grooms antics amuse the bride during a wedding reception in Khailino in Kamchatka, Russia. It is important to note that some of the theater of this wedding happened because it is Russian tradition. The community has endured great hardship and a people who have adjusted to being really kind to each other to all survive together.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260917.TIF
  • Partygoers cheer as the groom searches for his bride's garter.<br />
He lifted the bride and carried her into the warm glowing heart. They danced  and the lights came up and the festivities continued with hands-free-garter-diving in a heart-shaped flaming border of love. It is a tradition in Kamchatka, Russia.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1248207.TIF
  • After the official ceremony at the Khailino town hall, the newly married couple is followed by the wedding party to visit everyone in town who could not leave their houses to attend the three-day party.  <br />
<br />
Following Russian traditions, they drink a shot of vodka with each shut-in and share a little food, then go to the next home to visit other Kamchatka neighbors who are too elderly or infirm to participate in the event.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1248206.TIF
  • Bright orange caviar in production area of a Russian fish processing plant.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260924.JPG
  • The Kamchatka shelf is the only place where all seven species of Oncorhynchus Salmon can be found. Spawning salmon dominate traffic in the Ozernaya River. <br />
<br />
The salmon migration is one of the last great migrations that shapes the food supply and activities of many species, including humans. Salmon bring marine-derived nutrients from the Kamchatka shelf in the Sea of Okhotsk into the eight major river systems that run off the middle range of mountains that divide Kamchatka in half.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260965.TIF
  • Brown bears fishing for salmon in Kuril Lake. Kurilskoe Lake Preserve is a world heritage site and had serious poaching. But now, two or three wardens are always out on enforcement and they pack out for a month at a time. The official salary for wardens is $200 a month, but the WWF came in and supplemented salaries and bought them the equipment they need to do the job. WWF decided one of the gems of the reserve system that exists in all of Russia should be poaching free - and that also protects the brown bears.
    MM7593_20080818_07671.tif
  • Brown bears fishing for salmon in Kuril Lake. Kurilskoe Lake Preserve is a world heritage site and had serious poaching. But now, two or three wardens are always out on enforcement and they pack out for a month at a time. The official salary for wardens is $200 a month, but the WWF came in and supplemented salaries and bought them the equipment they need to do the job. WWF decided one of the gems of the reserve system that exists in all of Russia should be poaching free - and that also protects the brown bears.
    MM7593_20080812_06379.tif
  • Brown bears fishing for salmon in Kuril Lake. Kurilskoe Lake Preserve is a world heritage site and had serious poaching. But now, two or three wardens are always out on enforcement and they pack out for a month at a time.  The official salary for wardens is $200 a month, but the WWF came in and supplemented salaries and bought them the equipment they need to do the job. WWF decided one of the gems of the reserve system that exists in all of Russia should be poaching free - and that also protects the brown bears.
    MM7593_20080813_06845.tif
  • The Ozernaya River is full of spawning pink salmon— the most abundant—coming in from the left side of the frame, and sockeye—the most valuable—just below them.<br />
<br />
The Kamchatka Shelf in Russia is the last safe place for salmon and the only place on Earth with seven species of oncorhynchus (derived from Greek words meaning hook nose). These photographs illustrate a story about fish that were left alone for millions of years but are now threatened.  <br />
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Along the entire Pacific Rim, salmon production is down to 3 or 4 percent of historic production. Salmon transform from silver missiles in the ocean to brightly colored creatures as they make their way back up their ancestral rivers, and during spawning adult males develop a hooked nose. They stop eating, so it doesn’t matter that their mouths no longer work for food.  The photo in the Ozernaya River, above, shows
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  • A braided river ecosystem for salmon spawning. At the top of this photograph is the Sea of Okhotsk, and below it the Oblukovina River. They flow past wetlands created by heavy rain on the west side of Kamchatka. <br />
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Wetlands are the primary sign of a healthy salmon ecosystem and clouds of mosquitoes form where insects are a main food source. Salmon create a mass migration engine that brings marine-derived nutrients into river ecosystems, and the carcasses fertilize the entire Pacific Rim.<br />
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Salmon bring marine-derived nutrients from the Kamchatka shelf in the Sea of Okhotsk into the eight major river systems that run off the middle range of mountains that divide Kamchatka in half.
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  • Kurilskoe Lake Preserve is a world heritage site and had serious poaching. But now, two or three wardens are always out on enforcement and they pack out for a month at a time. The official salary for wardens is $200 a month, but the WWF came in and supplemented salaries and bought them the equipment they need to do the job. WWF decided one of the gems of the reserve system that exists in all of Russia should be poaching free.
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  • Brown bears fishing for salmon in Kuril Lake. Kurilskoe Lake Preserve is a world heritage site and had serious poaching. But now, two or three wardens are always out on enforcement and they pack out for a month at a time. The official salary for wardens is $200 a month, but the WWF came in and supplemented salaries and bought them the equipment they need to do the job. WWF decided one of the gems of the reserve system that exists in all of Russia should be poaching free - and that also protects the brown bears.
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  • Spawning salmon in the Ozernaya River.<br />
The Kamchatka Shelf in Russia is the last safe place for salmon and the only place on Earth with seven species of oncorhynchus (derived from Greek words meaning hook nose). These photographs illustrate a story about fish that were left alone for millions of years but are now threatened.  Along the entire Pacific Rim, salmon production is down to 3 or 4 percent of historic production. Salmon transform from silver missiles in the ocean to brightly colored creatures as they make their way back up their ancestral rivers, and during spawning adult males develop a hooked nose. They stop eating, so it doesn’t matter that their mouths no longer work for food.  The photo in the Ozernaya River, above, shows pink salmon— the most abundant—coming in from the left side of the frame, and sockeye—the most valuable—just below them.
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  • Brown bears fish for salmon in one of the best spots where the Ozernaya River flows into Kurilskoe Lake.  An abundant food supply attracts the bears, also known as grizzlies, to the protected watersheds of Kamchatka’s Kurilskoe Lake Preserve, the gem of the Russian preserve system.
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  • Landscape of the Putorana Plateau.
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  • Landscape of the Putorana Plateau.
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  • Landscape of the Putorana Plateau.
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  • Landscape of the Putorana Plateau.
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  • Grizzlies fish for salmon in one of the best spots where the Ozernaya River flows into Kurilskoe Lake under the backdrop of a volcano.  <br />
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Brown bears are not pack animals and an abundant food supply attracts them to the same place to hunt. The Kurilskoe Preserve is the model for poaching enforcement in all of Kamchatka. It is protected and the last wild place that produces all seven species of salmon.
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  • Steller's sea-eagles hone in on a salmon run to feed. Kurilskoe Lake preserve is the gem of the Russian preserve system, and these soaring birds of prey are called Stellar sea eagles in the U.S. and white-shouldered eagles in Russia, also nicknamed “parrots.” <br />
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They are one of the 137 species that depend solely on salmon for protein. Salmon carcasses frozen near the surface of very shallow streams make frozen “TV dinners” for several species.
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  • A brown bear photographed underwater while fishing. Bears thrive on salmon but compete with 137 species of fish, birds, and mammals that also depend on salmon as a main staple of their diet. <br />
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Grizzly bears gorge on rich protein of salmon for three months.  Though they munch on greens and berries, salmon are their main protein source and they fatten up before hibernating in the winter. <br />
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Brown bears in Kamchatka can be 7 to 9 feet in length and weigh 700-800 pounds. Species: U. arctic Genus:Ursus<br />
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Kamchatka has the highest density of brown bears in the world, with almost 15,000 on the peninsula.<br />
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To make this photograph, which was selected as one of the best photographs in National Geographic, I had to be approximately six feet away from bears like this one that was charging into the water to try to catch a fish. The water in Duril Lake is murky, so I had to be close and shot this photograph with a 12mm lens.
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